Free Ballin’

NiceNEasy wrote me today, asking me what I thought about ESPN’s Chad Ford’s article: Fixing the Knicks, Part II: Four steps to success. It’s an ESPN insider article I think, so I’ll just summarize:

Step One – Buy out Marbury

I’m not one for symbolic gestures and even last year I was suggesting they just put him on the inactive list through the rest of his contract, but nah, buy him out. The Knicks used to be just cap-strapped, incompetent team, but with this year’s back-page delights, they’ve become downright sleazy. Loudly exile the player who most represents the Knicks’ atrociousness.

Step Two - Trade Curry or Randolph

Curry: “They might see if Orlando would be willing to swap Dwight Howard for Curry and a draft pick. Alternatively, Curry and Lee may be enough to entice Cleveland to give up on the LeBron James experiment.” OK, he didn’t say that, but his trade-suggestions had the usual air of lunacy. He did suggest that Orlando might like teaming Curry with Howard, for the amusement factor, I imagine. Howard is one of the only people on earth who can stand next to Curry and make Eddy look like the little fat kid who gets chosen last in pickup games. Seriously though, the difficulty with trading Curry is that any GM who acquires Curry should be fired immediately and I think GMs understand this.

Given his contract and production, Curry is among the least valuable assets in the NBA. Since he came into the league, Curry’s scouting reports have invariably started with some mention of his excellent low-post game and vast potential, “if only he would…” hustle, rebound, lose about 60lbs. That is to say, if only Eddy would care. He could be a beast if only he weren’t obese and apathetic. Yeah, but he is and by now it’s safe to say he knows where the weight room is and that he shouldn’t hit the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet across from MSG before every game.

Curry’s conditioning is hardly his only flaw. Curry is a very effective low-post scorer. He takes almost all of his shots from within a few feet of the basket and converts them at an exceedingly high rate—According to NBA.com’s awesome Hotzones he made 59% from that range last year. However, Curry is among the worst in the league in every other respect. He can’t or doesn’t rebound or defend, shoots free-throws poorly, lacks stamina, turns the ball over quite a bit for a player who rarely takes more than one dribble per possession, fouls prodigiously, and he must be the least willing passer since Yinka Dare. Curry would have to score like prime-of-career Shaq to offset his many deficiencies, and he doesn’t. With player options through ’10–’11, he’s dead weight and if the Knicks are able to trade him, for anyone, I’d be wowed.

Randolph: Ford reports, “blah blah trade rumors with the Bucks, blah blah if you look at the long-term salary cap implications of the rumored deal, it doesn’t make sense for the Knicks — even if Charlie Villanueva is in the deal.” OK, this time he actually said (most of) that. Well, before I weigh in on Zach Randolph, consider one of my favorite quotes from Bill Simmons’ quote of the day archive

“I just don’t want the day to come where I pick up that paper and it says [Zach] shot someone, or that he was shot. Every day that goes by that I don’t see that, I feel good.”
– Moe Smedley, Zach Randolph’s high school coach”

OK, now you’re well primed for my take on the situation. Randolph is an extremely effective scorer and voracious rebounder, good enough to justify his lousy defense. However, he’s such a jerk he’s still not worth having around and certainly not for his salary. That’s a lot to claim about a player who’s capable of putting up all-star numbers, but one particular anecdote sealed it for me.

I’m living in Portland these days and watch a good bit of Trailblazers ball. The guys who call the game are homers, to the point that they refer to the ‘blazers by their first names–which is a little too cozy for me–and the opposition by their last names. They’re amusing and obviously thrilled with the way the team is playing this season. According to them, a significant part of their success can be attributed to Brandon Roy taking a leadership role. Now I don’t know about that–I’ll address Portland’s success in an upcoming column–but regardless, the TV guys told a story of the day that Brandon Roy became that leader.

Apparently, after games Zachary tended to rip into his teammates in the locker room, telling them they sucked and had to be better. Finally Brandon said answered “no you have to be better.” I’d love to know exactly what was said. Brandon usually sounds even more gee-aw-shucks than Richard Jefferson, but whatever the case, he stood up to the bully and thereafter there was peace in the valley. What struck me so much was the casual air with which the announcers told the story, like Randolph berating his teammates was just another day in the office. I don’t even think they mentioned whether or not the Blazers had lost the game. It makes me wonder if it makes a difference or if Randolph just went at them every game. Anyway, that stuff is not OK and definitely not OK on a young team like the Knicks. It’s especially difficult to take on Randolph‘s attitude when he’s by far the most talented player on the Knicks.

As far as Randolph’s game, he can be quite a force on offense. That said, the Knicks haven’t the remotest chance of being contenders during the remaining three-and-a-half seasons on Randolph’s contract. If you’re going to pay a guy franchise money and you’re still not going to win, shouldn’t he at least be a guy who plays The Right Way? I make fun of Larry Brown and his Right Way stuff, mostly because there are numerous right ways, but there is definitely a wrong way. Contending teams don’t feature twenty isolations a game for a black-hole player who doesn’t defend. There are a lot of young, developing players on the Knicks. It’s not a good mix. Just ask the Trailblazers, who paid $31 million for Randolph to leave a team, flush with young, developing talent.

As for rumors of a trade with the Bucks, check out their roster. I would trade Randolph for any combination of those players—any. If the Bucks want to throw in Charlie Villanueva too? Umm, yeah, I’d take that too. Frankly, I’d give the Bucks any combination of Knicks players not including David Lee for any combination of Bucks players. There are several reasons the Knicks are crappy, but having a crappy roster is (duh) the biggest problem.

Step Three – “Start to dig the Knicks out of salary-cap hell”: That’s what Chad Ford suggests. Well no shit Chad. How should they do it? He spends about twenty sentences pretty much just saying, “Wait it out.” Well you know what I say to that? Yeah, wait it out, sort of. To explain briefly, I’ll give my step by step.

Step One: Fire Isiah, obviously
Step Two: Buy out Marbury
Steo Three: Move Randolph and Curry – again, I have no earthly idea how they can possibly move Curry. I mean, I guess I shouldn’t underestimate the stupidity of NBA management, but it’s hard for me to picture a way that they could even drop him on McHale. Actually, that is the best strategy, pick the stupidest GMs in the game and try every combination you can think of to get them to take Curry.

OK, I’m not going to say it’s impossible. Since any kind of hope is better than what Knicks fans must feel now, I have at least the framework for how I’d try to go about it. Randolph has to go first, because the Knicks would likely get something of value in return. Ford did make an interesting suggestion, Randolph to Cleveland. Indeed, Cleveland might be the best place to look for a trade partner. The Cavs seem pretty desperate to get talent and their roster is depleted enough that they really don’t have assets to acquire talent through trades. Who knows, maybe they’d bite on a Randolph deal. In fact, I like Randolph on the Cavs. I have a sense that one of Randolph’s biggest problems is that he’s always been the best player on his teams. I can’t picture him mouthing off to LeBron. Furthermore, he’d fit well next to Sideshow. Whether it’s the Cavs or someone else, I would try and hawk Randolph to the highest bidder and use whatever assets you can get from that and the rest of the team to move Curry.

The way I see it, Lee is the only definite keeper on the squad, though hardly an untouchable. They have some perfectly good players, but part of the reason they have value is because they’re cheap. Right now the Knicks are enjoying Nate Robinson’s most valuable years (which isn’t saying much). In a few years, some team—hopefully not the Knicks—will sign him for too much money, and then he’ll be a back-of-the-rotation player with a bloated salary. More to the point, Balkman is solid, but would you want him at $6M a year? I’ll answer that, no.

Essentially, I think the entire Knicks roster should be utilized in the effort to move Curry and Randolph. There’s no reason to concern oneself with what to do with the rest of the team, because lord only knows what the roster would look like after those trades. If the Knicks buy out Marbury and are actually able to get rid of Curry, and Randolph, then that’s a pretty good indication that Isiah’s replacement is a freakin’ wizard, and I’d just let him keep doing his thing.

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Oh, this all came to mind because because I got an email from NiceNEasy while listening to Jeff Van Gundy doing color commentary, giving it to the Bulls for firing Scott Skiles, saying he’s one of the best coaches in the league. It occurred to me right then “Oh, Skiles, that’s the perfect fit,” for the Knicks and New York City. I’ll get into that next time.